Department of Medical Oncology, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan.
Department of Gastroenterology, Tokyo Women's Medical University Yachiyo Medical Center, Chiba, Japan.
Jpn J Clin Oncol. 2021 Nov 1;51(11):1622-1627. doi: 10.1093/jjco/hyab135.
According to a questionnaire sent to Designated Cancer Care Hospitals in Japan in 2013, only 39.4% of the institutes had medical oncology departments. Furthermore, most of these medical oncology departments were primarily responsible for the treatment of limited disease categories and the administration of newly developed therapeutic modalities, including molecular-targeted therapy. The aim of the present study was to update these previous findings and to clarify the changes over the intervening 7-year period.
The questionnaire was sent to all 393 Designated Cancer Care Hospitals on 13 March 2020. Similar to the previous questionnaires, questions were asked regarding the presence of a medical oncology department, the number of physicians in the department and the degrees of responsibility for drug therapies provided by medical oncologists to adult patients with solid cancers.
In total, 270 institutions (68.7%) responded. Overall, 145 of these 270 institutions (53.7%) had medical oncology departments, representing a significant increase compared with the results of the previous study (P < 0.01). Among the institutions with a medical oncology department, these departments were responsible for the administration of over 30% of all cytotoxic and molecular-targeted drug therapies for extragonadal germ cell tumors, cancers of unknown primary site, soft tissues, head and neck, esophagus, stomach, colon and rectum, and pancreas as well as the administration of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) for microsatellite instability-high tumors, cancers of the stomach, esophagus and head and neck, and melanoma.
The proportion of institutes with medical oncology departments in Japan has increased. In addition, the responsibility of medical oncology departments has expanded to include newly emerging drugs, such as ICIs.
根据 2013 年向日本指定癌症治疗医院发送的问卷，只有 39.4%的机构设有肿瘤内科。此外，这些肿瘤内科大多主要负责治疗有限的疾病类别，并管理新开发的治疗模式，包括分子靶向治疗。本研究的目的是更新这些先前的发现，并阐明在这 7 年期间的变化。
该问卷于 2020 年 3 月 13 日发送给所有 393 家指定癌症治疗医院。与之前的问卷类似，问题涉及肿瘤内科的存在、内科医师人数以及肿瘤内科医生对成人实体癌患者提供药物治疗的责任程度。
共有 270 家机构（68.7%）做出了回应。总的来说，这 270 家机构中有 145 家（53.7%）设有肿瘤内科，与之前的研究结果相比有显著增加（P < 0.01）。在设有肿瘤内科的机构中，这些科室负责管理超过 30%的睾丸外生殖细胞肿瘤、原发灶不明癌症、软组织、头颈部、食管、胃、结肠和直肠以及胰腺的细胞毒性和分子靶向药物治疗，以及对微卫星不稳定高肿瘤、胃癌、食管癌和头颈部癌以及黑色素瘤使用免疫检查点抑制剂（ICI）。
日本设有肿瘤内科的机构比例有所增加。此外，肿瘤内科的职责已经扩大到包括新出现的药物，如 ICI。
